Connections of Heart
by Merthedil Contril
Summary: Naraku and a mysterious figure are playing a strange game of chess with Inuyasha and Company as their pawns. What will happen when Naraku raises the stakes?


My trap sprang again. The lesser youkai, my quarry, bent forward to wrap his scaly hands around the flaxen-haired virgin woman. His hands clawed through her, finding her to be nothing but an illusion, and her image wavered for a second before vanishing. A flash of anger flickered through his clouded eyes before I decapitated him with one slash from my blade. 

Blood splattered everywhere, spraying from the large heart of my quarry, but I found the object I needed right in the base of the neck. It was glowing red with the anger that I had made boil in the youkai's heart, but it was not nearly as hot as some that I had activated in the past. However, it was more than I had expected. I picked it up, feeling the energy it was emitting. 

_These fragile, empty hearts. So easy to manipulate. So easy to bend to my will._ I thought to myself with a smile. It had been so easy, luring my prey into the forest. All I had to do was pinpoint its affections for human women. Such a weakness. He must have been quite foolish, coming out of his fortress unarmed for a simple concubine. And greedy, hoping to add her to his collection when he already owned fourteen. 

Indeed, the Snake of Chichuran had been a gullible, naive youkai if I ever saw one. The greater youkai were much harder to kill, being ever so wary of strangers. I had to take on many forms for those, most of the time having to mask my appearance behind a much more…pleasing form than my own. The scenarios in which I posed as their lover and smote them were one of my favorites. The idea that their love would kill them in such cold blood . . . the incomplete Shikon no Tama glowed red through my suit at the thought. 

Returning my gaze to the present, I smirked through my blue baboon mask. The setup had been so easy, and yet the shard held a good deal of corrupted energy. Reaching into the folds of my cloak, I retrieved the large portion of the Shikon no Tama that I had collected. I slipped the newly collected shard into the crack that still remained on the jewel's surface and it fused almost instantly. These hot, corrupted shards were assimilated so much more easily than the cold ones. 

My duty accomplished, I turned around to Disapparate back into my Shadow Palace. That's when I felt something wrong. 

"Taking the Soul of the Great Miko for your own purposes? You sicken me." came a voice, resounding with the pompous contempt of the overly righteous. "At least you could collect those shards peacefully, instead of killing for it." 

"Yamakuchuran, we meet again. How high and mighty you are, amassing your Light energy so boldly as to emerge on the physical plane…where I can rip your body into shreds." I tried to hide my seething hatred for the angelic beast, but I almost failed. The hatred was boiling inside me, and Yamakuchuran must have felt the Shikon no Tama reacting to it. The Light energy pouring from his physical shell was causing me great pain. The fact that he was focusing his attention at the blackened spider scar on my back didn't help. 

"What it must be like, living in fear of any Light energy that might seep onto this plane of existence. You and I both know that is why you are collecting the Shikon no Tama so hastily." I could almost feel his smug, overconfident gaze. How much I wanted to rip his physical heart out of his body . . . I knew it would not truly harm him, but it would soothe the burning heat of the scar on my back. 

"What business have you? I thought that your kind was too far above this plane of existence to bother with mortal affairs. I am in no mood to listen to your soliloquies on truth and valor. Your kind sicken me, and I you." I was no longer holding back my anger, but I was not about to look at his form. The sheer Light would blind me, making me ever so vulnerable to attack. _I hate being vulnerable…I hate this shoddy, cobbled-together body. _

"I have a proposition for you.", he stated with contempt. "We now know you have a certain…bargaining chip among Inutaishou's son's party. I am quite surprised that you have not used it." I could practically feel him smirking at me. "After all, it seems you have no patience in your other endeavors." he added, pointing to bones of my earlier prey. 

My rage was almost boiling over, causing the hidden tendrils of my numerous bodies to writhe. There had to be some other reason for his presence—he was not usually given to petty banter. "Yes, I do indeed have a certain leverage within your Master's little Company." I admitted slowly. "There were certain…concessions made, given the circumstances." 

I could feel him withdraw slightly, thinking. I started to wonder if he had completely manifested himself on the physical plane, or if he were merely projecting himself out of fear of me. Either that, or fear of the corrupted Shikon no Tama's energy. I had heard many things about the effects of evil energies on Light beings. I smirked, recalling the stories of the pain their physical shells go through when exposed to it. 

"My Master wishes for a compromise - you will be able to set your own plan into motion, if you let him meddle with one small - but very important - facet of the hanyou's power." Yamakuchuran was speaking slowly, as if dictated to; most likely his Master was speaking to him on a private channel to tell him what he was supposed to say. "He bodes you to have full access to your pawn, and you can do what you want with him. But only with him, not any of the others." He said pointedly. "And we _will_ be watching." 

"And I take it that he has another trick up his sleeve? He already played his last ace." I smirked. I detected a great deal of apprehension from the pompous windbag…he hadn't expected me to talk back. "If that is the case, let him have one very small bargaining chip - one concerning the relation between his player and mine." I felt him hesitate, and I could almost detect his Master's presence in the area, very faintly. Suddenly, my scar blazed with pain, sending me reeling. _He must be focusing all of his attention on this one point in space-time. I must have hit a sore spot…_

"My Master believes that he knows what you plan on doing, and thus allows you to do it. You have his full permission to enact your move within a seventy-two hour period, after which you shall be barred from meddling in my Master's affairs." With that, I felt him withdraw completely from the physical plane, bidding my pain away as he retreated to the astral realms. 

_How strange. He must be up to something, sending his foremost messenger to tell me such an insignificant rule change. But, perhaps I can use this to my advantage._ I smiled, feeling myself slipping out of the physical world briefly, transporting my body into my Shadow Palace. This weak shell wouldn't be my body for much longer. I could _feel_ it. This plan was _going_ to work. 

_Seventy-two hours is_ nothing…_ I have waited almost 60 years for a new body, and now I can have it so quickly. _

_Ever_ so quickly. 


End file.
